I installed LAMP manually using the various components through the ".tar.gz" packages available online on my Linux mint 13 cinnamon editon....but after everything ( apache2.4.2 was working , mysql was working ) the lone thing that was left to check was PHP5 ...i made a test.php file to check the configurations of php but insteas it showed me my own code <?php phpinfo(); ?> .........out of this frustration i asked for help online and various people suggested me help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP and i used tasksel to install my LAMP components again (without removing the previous installation).....but after following everything the problem seems to persist ....now my apache is working but when i point it to show my localhost/test.php it gives me a 404 not found..... :evil:

Probably i would ask people here to either assist me in combating this issue or either tell me how to uninstall the components installed by both manual installation and tasksel and make new start again in installing these components ....

Thanks in advance !!!

Without knowing where apache is serving from (the path of the root directory), and also not knowing where PHP expects the root to be, It's hard to say.
If its a virtual server you might have to add PHP as a handler (which was your original problem IMHO)

Clearly, the error message comes out because apache did not find your test.php in the localhost directory. If you have a basic install from Linux Mint, like
then your localhost main directory is probably /var/www

So try to put your test file there and hit it again.

example:
Then hit your link again.